I’ve been thinking about how to fix the workshop door being loud inside the Lecture Hall. I tried putting some foam padding on the door frame, which helped a bit. My theory now is that a lot of noise is going through the permanently closed door.
Back on the topic of shuffling committees.
What about putting 3d fab and electronics into the pillar room? We could use the former 3d fab room for printing and viynl cutting and the former electronics room for a 3rd classroom. Since it’s all the way at the front of the building it would probably be the quietest classroom.
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As best as I understand, @LisaSelk the head of 3D Fab, likes the room that 3D fab is in. So I’m not sure if she wants to move. But, I could be incorrect as I can’t remember if I heard this from Lisa or another member talking on her behalf. Electronic, under the guidance of @Tron were very interested in moving to the pillar room and probably still are. At the same time, @Lampy the current head of electronics is making leaps forward in organizing and setting up the current room. I believe given enough time the current electronics room will turn into a fully functional space for electronics, but I’m sure they would also not turn down MORE SPACE.
That all being said, The arts room can not house all their equipment in a usable fashion, while also being useful for members. This is because the arts has grown into an umbrella committee. Arts currently supports Large Format Printing, Sewing, Embroidery, Painting, Knitting, Computer Graphics, Animation, Leather working, Drawing, Arts classes, and other crafts. Their equipment has grown in both usage and size. I’m not sure there is a more fitting committee for the pillar room. Arts already supports classes, so being in the pillar room wouldn’t be the loss of a classroom as arts classes would still happen.
What happens to the current arts room would be the next concern. We have 2 large Class rooms with the Lecture Hall and the Hands On classroom. Having a smaller classroom may be a great fit, especially with the meetings I’ve seen held in the AV room, smaller hands on classes like the embroidery, and classes that draw less than 15 or 20 people. A small room would work well for that. The windows would be a plus as well, as teachers could spot none members waiting outside for their class without having to leave the room.
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I think 3D fab could be closer related to Arts. I think having design computers with specific software licenses that are similar to design/CAD/adobe/autodesk makes sense. It would effectively become a computer lab with the design computers in there. Arts still needs more storage and table space than they have. 3D fab can be condensed into about 12’ of table space, the polyprinters could be stacked even.
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I brought up the room size several weeks ago, when the new concrete table was put in the 3D Fab room. When I voiced my concern about how crowded the room might be, Lisa said the room size is good, and the room isn’t intended to be a hang-out. So, I’d say your impression is correct; Lisa likes the room the 3D Fab is in.
That sounds like a good proposal to put on the agenda, I would add that a 5’ wide slice of the pillar room should be designated as PearceLand, where the vinyl cutter and screen printing could go and not be under jurisdiction of the creative arts committee (If I recall correctly that was one of the issues with where to place vinyl cutter?)
Problem with pillar and screenprinting is paint and carpet.
If Arts moved into the Pillar Room and didn’t have to share it with any other committee, I would expect that the conference room that was overrun with AV equipment would also be moved. We still have some of the blue paint left (and it was relatively cheap to buy) so we can always paint another wall.
I was going to comment earlier about carpeting potentially being a problem for 3D Fab, too. You know, when we get those messy stereolithographic printers we’ve always wanted…
@Kentamanos The carpet issue is something that I’m sure we could plan for. We can attempt some kind of a protective flooring or just plan to replace the carpet when we move if it is in particularly bad shape. But with the foot traffic we have at the space, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the carpet warn out or trashed by the time we move. Carpet doesn’t last forever and is often replaced between tenants of a building at the owner’s expense. We just have to keep it acceptable enough that they don’t try and make us replace the carpet.
@bscharff AV is a different committee from Arts so I’m confused by your statement.
If arts doesn’t have to share the pillar room with another committee, then they should have to share with the AV committee? Am I stating that right as it seems to be contradicting?
@Brandon_Green I agree that the vinyl cutter should stay in the Pillar Room with arts. In fact I think arts should take lead on the vinyl cutter. With the way the Arts Committee is run, Pearce should be able to do everything he does for the vinyl cutter within the arts committee, without the requirement of any of the extra abilities he has as a board member. It would work just like the printers which are under arts, but maintained and run by private members, except they are also often maintained and run by other members of the arts committee as well. So you would end up with more support in the long run. You can thank @pandabob for this new way of fitting tools into a committee, as he did the majority of the grunt work to prove it’s value.
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AV is under the Arts committee… they don’t have their own committee (and I haven’t seen anything on the BoD agenda to create one)
I did not know that AV is a committee. My understanding is that it is part of Creative Arts Committee.
I was also under the impression that the vinyl cutter is privately-owned, on loan to us and owner-maintained. It doesn’t fall under committee maintenance.
The A/V committee was disbanded over 2 years ago. The current A/V interest group was started up under Creative Arts when we moved in to the current building.
Any solution we come up with needs to solve these problems:
- Keep usable classroom/meeting space, the pillar room is often used for classes and meetups. Dedicated classroom area is often better than sharing with tools, so that classes don’t impact tool availability.
- Give enough room for arts to do things they currently can’t do effectively (I believe this is primarily the sewing/embroidery stuff).
- Give 3d fab enough room to expand for future printers.
- Maintain usable space for Electronics (don’t shoehorn them into a bad space).
- Find dedicated space for the vinyl cutters and large format printers.
You can see why this has been a particularly difficult issue to solve.
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So my confusion over AV, just checked the committees page and AV is not on there as a separate committee. However, AV has been running as its own committee for a while now, I believe I heard @Haley_Moore passed the running of it over to @deezler. So it may be time that these two entities properly separated or better explained their relationship. Haley or Daryl could you explain this better please?
Thanks
I’ve already talked with @deezler and @Natasha_Cooks about what steps need to be taken to re-form as an official committee. I believe they’ll be doing so at the next board meeting.
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One thing I would like to throw out there is this…
If we set aside committees and resource ownership/management for a second
there’s one common thread between 3D fab, the vinyl cutter and the wide
format printers. They’re all computer driven. Possibly there are other
tools (is there an embroidery machine that “prints”?
It may be that it’s better to divide up rooms based on common tool
characteristics rather than by committee ownership. We might getore
efficient use of space if a computer lab were to be combined with tools
that are computer driven… Another advantage would be the consolidation of
software licenses when there’s overlap.
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Also, here’s a suggestion… Move Arts into the hands on workroom. It has a
tile floor and is large enough for large work tables - great for project
oriented work that might be messy. At the same time, move the printers into
the column room to be joined up with the vinyl cutter and possibly 3D fab?
Turn the current arts room into a class room.
That is correct. We are getting some resources together, as well as classes to relaunch the AV program. Will keep you posted on our progress! You will hear something later this week.
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I think it’s best to keep the Hands-on Classroom and Lecture Hall as-is, they are the only rooms with dedicated 5-ton AC (each). Which means they are the only rooms that can easily accommodate a large number of people without becoming uncomfortably hot.
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What extra abilities as a board member? I’ve been running the vinyl cutter as a self supporting tool since way before I ran for board.
The vinyl cutter is DMS owned, it doesn’t fall under a committee because when I found the one that had been donated to us sitting in a box long long time ago, I made it into a project to make the tool support itself instead of asking the board for funds to get it going.
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